Mary Medd

Mary Beaumont Medd (née Crowley, 4 August 1907 - 6 June 2005) was a British architect, known for public buildings including schools.[1] Medd was the first architect to be employed by Hertfordshire county council.[2]

Mary Beaumont Medd
Born
Mary Beaumont Crowley

(1907-08-04)4 August 1907
Died6 June 2005(2005-06-06) (aged 97)
NationalityBritish
Alma materBedales School
OccupationArchitect
SpouseDavid Medd
PracticeHertfordshire county
Ministry of Education

Early life and education

She was the daughter of Ralph Henry Crowley (1869–1953), who worked as Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Education.[3] After education at home, she spent one year at an experimental school run by Isabel Fry, and then was at Bedales School from 1921 to 1926 where she became Head Girl.[4][5]

After attending a finishing school in Switzerland, in 1927 she trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.[5] She studied alongside Jessica Albery, Justin Blanco White, and Judith Ledeboer where they developed a commitment to housing reform and social concerns which impacted their future careers.[6][7][8]

Career

As Mary Crowley, working with Cecil George Kemp, she designed three houses at 102, 104 and 106 Orchard Road, Tewin, Hertfordshire, in 1935–36.[9]

In 1941, John Newsom, Hertfordshire's education officer, hired her as the first architect to be employed by Hertfordshire County Council.[5] She later met her husband David Leslie Medd (1917–2009), when she was part of the team of architects commissioned to build schools in Hertfordshire after World War II. They married on 11 April 1949, and always worked together after this,[5] becoming leading school designers in England and Wales.[10]

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C467/29) with Mary Medd in 1998 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.[11]

Mary Medd died on 6 June 2005 in Woolmer Green, Hertfordshire.[5]

References
  1. Walker, Lynne; Saint, Andrew (24 June 2005). "Mary Medd, Obituary". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  2. Walker, Lynne; Saint, Andrew (23 June 2005). "Obituary: Mary Medd". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  3. Catherine Burke,About looking: vision, transformation, and the education of the eye in discourses of school renewal past and present, British Educational Research Journal Vol. 36, No. 1 (February 2010), pp. 65–82, at p. 66. Published by: Wiley on behalf of BERA JSTOR 27823587
  4. Catherine Burke,About looking: vision, transformation, and the education of the eye in discourses of school renewal past and present, British Educational Research Journal Vol. 36, No. 1 (February 2010), pp. 65–82, at p. 80 note 10 and p. 68. Published by: Wiley on behalf of BERA JSTOR 27823587
  5. "Medd [née Crowley], Mary Beaumont (1907–2005), architect and educationist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/104202. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2 October 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. Walker, Lynne (11 July 2019), "Albery, Jessica Mary (1908–1990), architect and town planner", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112259, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 2 October 2021
  7. Darling, Elizabeth (11 July 2019), "White [married name Waddington], (Margaret) Justin Blanco (1911–2001), architect", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112261, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 2 October 2021
  8. Walker, Lynne (2004). "Ledeboer, Judith Geertruid (1901–1990), architect and public servant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66415. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2 October 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. Gould, Jeremy (1977). Modern houses in Britain, 1919-1939. Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. p. 45.
  10. Harwood, Elain (27 April 2009). "David Medd: Architect who revolutionised school design". The Independent. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  11. National Life Stories, 'Medd, Mary (1 of 11) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 1998. Retrieved 10 April 2018

Further reading
  • Lacomba Montes, Paula; Campos Uribe, Alejandro. “From Classrooms to Centres: Mary and David Medd’s Contribution to Postwar School Design in Britain.” Arq: Architectural Research Quarterly 24, no. 3 (January 1, 2020): 251–264.
  • Shariff, Yasmin. “Schools Power: A New Biography of Mary Medd Is a Timely Reminder of the Interdependence of Architecture, Education and Children’s Welfare in the Modern Age.” Architects’ Journal 237, no. 12 (March 1, 2013): 63–67.
  • University of York. Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies., and Mary Medd. A Right to Be Children: Designing for the Education of the Under-fives : An Account of Two Courses Held At the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, April and July 1974. London: RIBA Publications, 1976.
  • Burke, Catherine (2013). A Life in Education and Architecture: Mary Beaumont Medd. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-7190-5.
  • Gould, Jeremy (1977), Modern houses in Britain, 1919-1939, Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
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